1. 4000+ points for the team (or having reached phase 3 of previous ballenus tourney) and 4.5 rating for each player.2. I can deny or allow entrance to particular teams at my own discretion.3. To sign up post your team members here. If you are not sure about your teammate you can reserve a slot and confirm teammate name within 24 hours.4. Premium membership is required for the whole duration of the tournament.5. Once you are signed up, you don't have to maintain 4000+ rating.

In foggy games, last team to join shall wait at least 12 hours or confirmation that other team has taken a snapshot before taking turn

The 32 teams will be split randomly in 8 groups of 4 teams. The 8 finalists of the 2012 tourney (those that reached phase 3) will be placed in different groups as indicated on the figure. In each group, each team will play against the remaining 3 teams on 5 maps. Play order is sequential, deployment automatic, reinforcement chained, no trench, and we have sun or fog and escalating or no card games.- Classic escalating, sun- Poison Rome, no card, fog- Drugs war, no card, fog- Berlin 1961, no card, sun- Benelux, escalating, sunAfter the 5 games “battle”, the winner (3, 4 or 5 games won out of the 5 played) will be credited with 2 points and the loser with 0 point. Each team will play 15 games in the first phase. Invitation for the 5 games battles will be sent every two weeks. Assuming the tourney starts on 10.06.2012, the first phase could be over by the end of July.After the first phase, teams will have either 6, 4, 2 or 0 points. The two first teams advance to the second phase. In case two teams have the same number of points, the number of games won will first be used to determine who advances. For example, if three teams have 4 points, one has 12 games won, another one 11 and a third one 10, the teams with 12 and 11 games won will advance. If this is not sufficient, the number of games won on the first map (this number will be 2,1 or 0 for each team) will be used, if not sufficient, the number of games won on the second map will be used as tie break, then the number of games used on the third map, then on the fourth and if insufficient, a quick tie break will be made on classic.The same principles will apply if we have 40 or 48 teams (ranking first by number of points, then by games won, then by games won on the first map, then on the second map etc.).

:Phase 3 will take a different format as the 8 remaining teams will play against each other (5 maps battle as in phase 1). Phase 3 will be organized in 7 “days”. For each “day” 4 maps and settings will be chosen by the 4 “winners” of the 4 groups of phase 2. Settings should be those of the tourney escalating or no card and sunny/fog, all other settings being standards. Moreover, the map can only be chosen if players do no start with territory bonus (goal is to avoid undue advantage for the team that starts, so maps should be small enough to avoid that players start with 12 or more territories. However, maps like conquer rome where there is no bonus for territories are OK). The fifth map will be different for each day:- Day 1 : Classic escalating, sun- Day 2 : Poison Rome, no card, fog- Day 3 : Drugs war, no card, fog- Day 4 : Berlin 1961, no card, sun- Day 5 : Arms race !, escalating, fog- Day 6 : Battle for Irak, escalating, fog- Day 7 : France, no card, sun

[spoiler=tie breaker rule for phase 3]As in phases 2 and 1 raking will first be established on the basis of points (when you win a 5 games battle you get 2 points whatever the score is (5-0,4-1 or 3-2). If two or more teams have the same number of points, we will look at the number of games won. If two or several teams have the same number of points and games won we will look at the following criteria: If only two teams have the same number of points and game won, the winner will be the winner of the battle between these two teams in phase 3. If we have more than two teams, (for example 3 teams) we will re-establish a table of standing taking only the games between these teams into account and following the same rules than before (points and then games won to establish the table of standing). If, as a result, we still have exactly the same number of teams with the same number of points and games won then I'd find a fair way to deal with this (such as new championship between these teams). If as a result we have less teams with the same number of points (for example 2) then we will draw up a new table of standing taking only the games between these teams into account (for example if we have 2 teams this means that the winner of the game between these two teams will be the winner)

It seems we will get at least 32 entries. If we reach 40 entries, we will make phase 1 with 8 groups of 5 teams and if we reach 48 entries, we will make phase 1 with 8 groups of 6 teams. Principle will remain the same but it will be more difficult = 2 first teams advance. n case we get only 24 teams, the principle will remain the same : we will start with 6 groups of 4, and then we will have 3 groups of 4 and the best two third teams will go to the third phase.If we get between 33 and 39 or between 41 and 47 last ones to register should lobby to get some more on board or they will be on the reserve list…